GeForce RTX 3060 re-launch: Nvidia preparing to bring back 5-year old gaming GPU later this month, claims report

Amidst global shortages, it appears that Nvidia has a plan up its sleeve to feed gamers who have been starving for more GPUs in the market. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 - now five years old - might be making a surprise comeback as early as March of 2026.

The GeForce RTX 3060 was available in 8 or 12 GB GDDR6 VRAM flavors, and it is not clear as of this writing which variant will enter circulation. The GeForce RTX 5060 (currently $339.99 on Amazon) packs only 8 GB of VRAM, which is worth noting. The reason why a more modern GPU, like the RTX 4060, was not chosen also remains anyone's guess. However, courtesy of a recent report, we now know that the RTX 3060 will be manufactured using Samsung's 8 nm node, just as before.

Performance-wise, the RTX 3060 should be able to manage around 70% of the RTX 5060's performance, which would make it a decent low-end desktop GPU, possibly with an attractive price tag. That said, the RTX 5060 packs a lot of other tricks, such as multi-frame generation, and native FP8 acceleration in DLSS 4.5, which makes it far more capable than raw numbers might indicate. Of course, like most other GPU launches in recent history, ultimate market pricing will boil down to supply and demand figures. 

Unconfirmed reports and rumors are always to be taken with a grain of salt. If the GeForce RTX 3060 gaming GPU is indeed set to be re-introduced later this month, we should be able to find out sooner rather than later.